I’m not advising you to avoid visiting Mumbai’s own Dhobi Ghat, the largest outdoor laundry in the world. This article only serves as a warning to photographers who may want to visit inside: be prepared to be let down by the experience.

Street photography has all kinds of benefits. I want to share a few of these with you because even if you’re not a hardcore enthusiast, you might be surprised by what the genre can do for you if you decide to pursue it even occasionally. I’m personally working on my ninth year of shooting street photography and I hope to be doing it for decades to come. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Knowing your purpose in street photography is one thing; packaging it and presenting it to the world is quite another. I guess I’ve known all along what my purpose has been in street photography and photography in general: turning people into art. It may sound generic. It may sound too vague. After all, isn’t that what portrait painters do? Or any number of other artists, for that matter?

Street photographers, like any photography enthusiast, do stupid things occasionally. And I’m not above it all; I’ve ticked most of the boxes on this list. The point is to learn and grow as street photographers and not repeat the same mistakes that hold us back.
I compiled the ‘7 Stupid Things That Street Photographers Do’ list based on my past mistakes and those of photographers I’ve explored the streets with over the past eight years in India and worldwide.

I’ve coined a term for stopping up to your maximum aperture on the lens and walking around in Aperture Priority mode on Auto ISO: Goofy Mode. It’s what everyone is bound to do when they purchase a fast prime lens (like a Sony 85mm 1.8.) and set out and about and put it through the paces.

I don't consider myself a documentary photographer. I occasionally take pictures, that if were part of a much larger and more precise body of work, could be considered documentary in nature. But the reality is there's only one project that has been dear to me in the past decade and I only photograph that part of Kolkata real estate too infrequently.

I see a lot of crazy shit in Mumbai and if I’m packing one of my cameras, the chances are that I’m going to capture the moment even if the image isn’t technically immaculate. My definition of crazy shit may differ from yours, but for the sake of argument, let’s just say that crazy shit is a good thing and not necessarily a bad thing and hence desirable to capture. It could crossover into Bresson’s decisive moment territory, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t ever not be the case. Crazy shit is memorable. Crazy shit tends to stir up conversation. And Crazy shit can be epic. I’m always on the lookout for crazy shit in my street photography.

A frame within a frame is always on my brain - when I'm shooting wide on my 24mm prime lens. That's because I'm always considering foreground layers when it comes to composition. Shooting subjects straight on can be unflattering compared to other focal lengths that come with nice bokeh when opened wide up. The 24mm needs help, in my opinion.